Hu Zhongxuan’s sudden eruption of killing intent left you deeply unsettled.

At this moment, your body split into two halves.

Fortunately, the immense vitality granted by Ultimate Path Essence Refining prevented your immediate death, and you felt you could still try to salvage the situation.

If all else failed, you could write several wills to see how things unfolded.

You used Source Power to gather your internal organs and intestines inside your abdominal cavity.

Your strength was severely diminished, and facing the bizarre Hu Zhongxuan, you were hardly a match. Escape was temporarily impossible as well.

However, your Soul Awakening Blade was already in hand. Although you couldn’t win or flee, at the very least, you had to bite back!

It would also serve as a probe for the next simulation, to figure out what kind of demon or monster Hu Zhongxuan truly was.

You pointed your long blade at Hu Zhongxuan and shouted, “No matter who you are, get off my Master Uncle immediately!”

Hu Zhongxuan sneered fiercely and swung a massive claw with tremendous force.

The claw struck the air with a piercing whistle.

You furrowed your brows, intending to counterattack, when a whip shadow flickered past.

Smack—

The whip shattered Hu Zhongxuan’s tiger claw, the illusory claw disintegrating into countless jade shards scattering in the air.

Yan Zhixue, clad in a black dress, rushed out and stood before you.

Her silver nine-section whip still trembled; evidently, she had suffered from blocking that strike.

Facing the sudden intervention of Yan Zhixue, you were stunned again: “What the hell? Mother-in… no, Sect Leader Yan?!”

“Run!” Yan Zhixue grabbed your upper body and surged into the sky.

You hurriedly gathered Source Power to bring along your severed lower half.

Hu Zhongxuan was still relentless, abruptly soaring up to chase rapidly.

Behind you and Yan Zhixue, Hu Zhongxuan’s face twisted madly, exuding immense pressure.

Even Yan Zhixue frowned deeply, focusing solely on fleeing with your injured form.

Because Yan Zhixue flew away first, you managed to create some distance from Hu Zhongxuan.

However, Hu Zhongxuan’s speed was even faster than Yan Zhixue’s; the gap between you was steadily closing.

Two streaks of light chased each other across the sky, covering several miles in an instant.

Suddenly, Hu Zhongxuan’s figure faltered and plummeted straight down.

With a heavy thud, he crashed onto the ground, motionless for a long time.

Yan Zhixue glanced back and immediately accelerated to widen the distance.

The wind howled fiercely in the sky.

Even the gentle and intellectual Yan Zhixue became serious.

She cast a sideways glance at you, noticing you were holding your lower half with your upper body.

“How long can you hold on?” she asked.

You smiled coldly, pushing all pain aside.

With a snap, you reattached your lower half to your upper body.

After temporarily reassembling yourself, you took out the hot Reviving Yang Pill you had just refined and tilted your head back to swallow it in one gulp.

The Reviving Yang Pill was a top-tier healing pill; healing such severe injuries was no problem at all.

You quickly dissolved the pill, and it began to take effect.

At the connection point of your body, flesh buds rapidly sprouted, gradually fusing the two halves together.

Your internal organs and flesh returned to their rightful places and resumed functioning.

The sensation of your body healing rapidly was strange; you clenched your teeth as sweat beaded on your forehead.

But soon,

In less than half a quarter of an hour, you had revived on the spot.

You touched your severed waist, smooth and intact as before.

Yan Zhixue watched with amazement, then suddenly realized, “This is the Reviving Yang Pill?”

“Sect Leader Yan knows it too?”

“Rusong mentioned it to me.”

You nodded.

You told Yan Zhixue she no longer needed to carry you while flying.

“What do you mean?” Yan Zhixue asked, puzzled.

You didn’t explain further and directly soared into the sky by your own power.

Yan Zhixue’s eyebrows lifted in surprise, exclaiming, “You have advanced to the Ultimate Path? When did that happen?!”

“That’s not important, Sect Leader Yan. I want to ask why my Master Uncle became like this.”

Yan Zhixue pondered for a moment before saying, “The current Hu Zhongxuan is not your Master Uncle. Or more precisely, he’s not entirely Hu Zhongxuan.”

You looked confused. “Sect Leader Yan, what do you mean by that? Please speak plainly!”

“You have entered the Ultimate Path; you should know that every martial artist can only fuse with one Earth Source, right?”

“I know. Forcing the fusion of a second Earth Source causes it to dissipate immediately.”

Yan Zhixue nodded lightly and asked, “Do you remember the Earth Source distribution battle at Yajiangkou thirty-four years ago?”

“I remember. I was even conscripted into the medical corps.”

Yan Zhixue nodded again. “Then you must also know that after the battle, all the senior pill refiners from the Danxia Sect mobilized to help Li Anlong refine a certain pill.”

Suddenly you recalled. When you returned to Danxia Sect to look for Xie Huide back then, you were told he wasn’t there.

Later, you learned from Xie Huide that they had gone to help Li Anlong refine pills but never told you what they refined.

You had even wondered why a miraculous elixir would require all the sect’s senior pill refiners.

You hurriedly asked Yan Zhixue, “Sect Leader Yan, do you know what pill was refined that time?”

Yan Zhixue fell silent for a moment, then finally explained the details.

It turned out that the pill Li Anlong had Xie Huide, Deng Rusong, and others refine was called the Spirit Fusion Mother-and-Child Pills.

The Spirit Fusion Mother-and-Child Pills were ninth-grade pills and required one Earth Source as the primary ingredient.

The pills came in pairs, one mother pill and one child pill.

The only function of the Spirit Fusion Mother-and-Child Pills was to allow an Ultimate Grandmaster who took the child pill to fuse their physical body into the body of an Ultimate Grandmaster who took the mother pill.

This fusion allowed the one who took the mother pill to advance further on the Ultimate Path, reaching a new level!

This was not simply one plus one equals two.

Because the fusion of another Ultimate Grandmaster’s body allowed their Earth Source attribute to reconstruct the fused body again.

The difference could roughly be seen as the gap between a Grandmaster and an Ultimate Grandmaster—a whole new height.

The premise was that the fused Ultimate Grandmaster must willingly consent to fusion; otherwise, it wouldn’t take effect.

You suddenly understood. The two conditions Hu Zhongxuan agreed to in order to obtain Li Anlong’s Earth Source were one: to implement the Taxation by Land Acreage reform.

The other condition wasn’t to resist Jin Yue Nation but to willingly fuse into Li Anlong’s body.

Thinking of this, your expression turned icy cold. You clenched your teeth and snarled, “They really cleaned me out!”

The Spirit Fusion Mother-and-Child Pills only worked the first time taken and couldn’t take effect multiple times, so multiple fusions of other Ultimate Grandmasters were impossible.

That was why when Li Anlong’s consciousness took control just now, he immediately attacked you fiercely.

Because you were likely to become a ninth-grade pill refiner with the ability to refine the Spirit Fusion Mother-and-Child Pills, something Li Anlong absolutely wouldn’t allow.

You asked, “Has my Master Uncle actually already been fused into Li Anlong’s body?”

“Yes.”

“But he didn’t seem that strong just now?”

Yan Zhixue glanced sideways at you. “That’s because Li Anlong’s Spirit Fusion Mother-and-Child Pills were imperfect. Even though all the Danxia Sect’s pill refiners participated, it was still a ninth-grade pill, and the final product had a small flaw.”

“What flaw?”

“A perfect Spirit Fusion Mother-and-Child Pill wouldn’t preserve the fused person’s consciousness, but Li Anlong’s pair retained part of Hu Zhongxuan’s consciousness!”

Yan Zhixue continued, “So Hu Zhongxuan didn’t fight at full strength just now, and even fell strangely from the sky while chasing us. All of this was Hu Zhongxuan’s consciousness influencing Li Anlong.”

“Sect Leader Yan, how do you know such detailed information?”

A trace of melancholy appeared in Yan Zhixue’s beautiful eyes. “Rusong told me.”

You frowned in confusion and asked, “If you knew this long ago, why didn’t you try to stop Li Anlong? After all, someone at that level would pose a threat to the entire martial world.”